Entry 1: To Wiki, Or not to Wiki?
I have to admit that several years ago our media center specialist at FHC attempted to convince me of the merits of a wiki. My only experience at the point with wikis was of course Wikipedia. Fresh out of college in 2005, the prevailing wind was that Wikiepedia was not only unreliable but almost a sin when using in an academic setting. The media center specialist convinced me to use a wikispaces site to collect and administer a project on the seven continents (a project for a Geography course I was teaching). I happily registered with wikispaces and was determined to be the fresh, young teacher that was willing to try such programs. I set up a pretty slick (for the time) wikispace and then invited all of my sixth hour Geography students to the site.
After about five minutes in the computer lab (about the time it takes to boot-up and log-in to the computers) the first hand shot up like a ship into space. Then another hand and another hand and another.
"Mr. Anderson! The site URL you gave us is blocked!" shouted one student.
"Try it again," I said, not sure if I should break a brow sweat or chalk it up to inattentiveness by five of my students.
But, then another dozen hands and a dozen inquisitive looks were directed towards me.
"Mr. Anderson...ummm...I tried it again and it doesn't work", calmly stated one of my more thoughtful and forgiving students.
"I guess this means we can't do the project, huh, Mr. Anderson?!" snarkily commented one of my least attentive students.
What happened was that although I was given access to wikispaces through our very stringent school internet filtration system, for some reason at that time, wikispaces was a blocked site.
At that very moment I realized something about technology, a creed repeated by my EDU 653 professor Kim Guerrazzi often, "Technology is great, when it works!"
Another, thing happened that day: Even though it was the district block and not the software/technology itself, I was jaded and word "wiki" to me meant embarassment, wasted work and treachery. Anytime I heard the word again I cringed. Not only would I refuse to see the merits of the technology but I would actively discourage other educators in my department from using it.
One side note, is that the block was lifted after a few days of scrambling and watching The Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" DVD's to "supplement" the project. We has a few days still in the lab and we attempted to utilize the wiki. More problems floated to the top: password problems, editing issues, etc. What I did not wrap-my-head-around was that a wiki, which loosely translated in Hawaiian means "quick", is a resource where anyone with access to the wiki is in essence an editor-in-chief. The technology itself was not properly explained to me, when, in a time where blogs, wikis and YouTube were still emerging and in their infancy (educationally at least).
Fast forward to my journey to attain a masters in educational technology. I signed-up out of a genuine interest to advance my knowledge and competency in the area of educational technology. Learn how to create and upload a YouTube clip? Sure. Be versed in the ways of prezi and google sites? No problem. Attempt a digital storytelling video? Heckya! Craft ten page essay using Google Drive? You got it! But the buck stopped, for me at least, when it came to wikis. It was like nails on a chalk board when a professor used this modality.
It's not all because of that one isolated let-down back six or seven years ago, but rather my inability to see or happen-upon wikis of any value. Most of my digital life is spent on news websites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, and the suite of Google Apps our district provides (Drive and sites being my favorite outside using blogger). And so, a wiki to me translated to a fancy and convoluted way to administer a course or collaborate with colleagues. I saw wikis as the darling of the digitocracy meant to make amateurs like me feel silly and stupid when dive down the rabbit hole.
However, my paradigm, begrudgingly is shifting and shifting quickly. I was gaining ground after being required in this class to not only maintain my own wiki but join the EDU 653 wiki. And then, in the second course I am taking this summer I was asked to create a PBWorks wiki page through the course. I was forcibly immersed in wikis! Then something beautiful happened, I was forced to read Chapter 4 in the Will Richardson's book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. I finished the chapter and immediately began thinking of way I could use the power of the wiki in my own classroom where I still am a fresh (maybe not young) teacher look for interesting ways to integrate useful technology into the classroom.
I think my change of heart is due in large part to having to use the wiki technology AND Mr. Richardson's artful way of explaining what exactly a wiki is and what its intended uses should be for an educator. Had this been carefully explained to me the first time - that a wiki is a mode of learning, not the goal of the learning - I may have been using wikis as often as I use YouTube, digital storytelling and Twiiter today.
As an educator I consider myself a pragmatist. I want to use what is going to work and work best for kids. Thanks to Mr. Richardson (and EDU 653 & 709) I began to see the possibilities of collaborative work. I am a huge advocate of project based learning, "hot" cognition and the like. I believe students perform best when there is something personally invested and something important (other than a grade) at stake. Wikis offer a (now) easy and logistically viable resource for student collaboration on any number of topics and projects.
I now proudly will forge ahead with an adjusted attitude about the word and the technology we call wikis. The funny thing is, just weeks before my first stab at a class wiki, our district was visited by a progressive educational technology advocate by the name of Will Richardson. During his presentation I saw Twitter for the first time, Skype for the first time and learned about this new-fangled thing called a "weblog". For whatever, I may have blacked out during his wiki presentation. Either way, here I am...a changed man.
To wiki!
Entry 2: In the Spirit of Collaboration
A response to Joshua Block's blog on Edutopia
"Creating Successful Collaborations"
In the spirit of the extolling the virtues of wikis and collaborative learning I sat down and read Mr. Josh Block's July 5, 2013 blog entry about "Creating Successful Collaborations". I am a passionate proponent of project-based learning and collaboration goes hand-in-hand with wikis. Block's article was a nice follow-up to my weekly learning objectives.
The best part of Block's blog is his listing of guidelines for successful classroom collaboration. Among them are:
1. Establishing an environment of shared leadership and ownership
2. Planning together and creating common goals
3. Communicating regularly and reevaluating
4. Valuing and Celebrating Student Work
5. Fundraising together
-Joshua Block blog on Edutopia
Block states that if you follow the guidelines you can reap powerful rewards. Collaboration is not just working and producing among the students themselves, but rather work and experiences with business owners, professors, professionals and local community members. Collaboration is about learning beyond the measured walls of a classroom and empowering students to learn via an age old method - master & apprentice(s).
I have been on the receiving end of forced collaboration whereby a guest speaker was brought to my classroom through some district-wide or guidance counselor initiative. It is a "crap-shoot" for lack of better term. I have had some really interesting speakers that engage the audience and draw in the crowd with a good story and a well-planned activity. I have also had people show up planning to speak about themselves for twenty minutes and then take question for the next thirty-five minutes. In short, I do not get overly-enthused when I get an email stating a "guest speaker" is coming to my classroom.
However, I think Josh Block's guidelines should be used by teachers has a plan and as a by-law for collaboration (either by choice or by mandate). After all, we work hard over weeks and weeks to establish trusting relationships and positive environments. Giving-up the reigns to a veritable stranger seems counter-intuitive.
Either way, collaboration should be a large part of education, especially in the teen years. First collaboration with fellow classmates and then onto broader experiences with the world at large.
I know for me, it was being sent out to shadow a local computer software business is what steered me towards education. In a setting much like NBC's "The Office" workers sat at cubicles and clammored around the water cooler during breaks. The boss - an amiable enough guy - wasn't the type of guy I could get fired-up to go work for every day. Subsequently, the collaboration worked in reverse...Instead of furthering my interest in the business world I had a self actualization moment - I liked working with people, I liked history and I liked to coach wrestling. After that, the decision to become a teacher became clear.
Had the teacher not reached out to collaborate (and follow the aforementioned guidelines) I might be sitting somewhere next to my own Dwight Shrute. Hard to imagine.
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